Ritual and Personal Space Installation

Stress Pile

Notebook paper, pens

In recent weeks, my schoolwork and social life has kept me busier than ever. Because of this, I wanted to explore how fast stress and priorities manifest each day and how they can leave you just as quickly. Stress has its time and it doesn't feel nice but it will pass and people who experience it will make it through in the end. For me, a week at school feels like "controlled chaos" and I wanted to perform an exercise that let me control it even more. I found a private space in a tunnel underneath a bridge on campus and returned here over the next five days.

Every day, I wrote down each stressful thought and feeling on individual pieces of notebook paper. I then crumpled these papers up and threw them into the corner of the tunnel. Some days I would only write about three things that were making me anxious, and others I would write six or seven. The pile started small, but got bigger and bigger each day. This symbolized how it feels when stress builds up, but also the relief I feel when something worrying passes and it no longer weighs on me. These are feelings I discard!

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

This was a soothing exercise that comforted me during the week. Some stresses would come up on multiple days, some were resolved during the week, and some were things that I am longer concerned about. I enjoyed exploring the chaotic emotions I feel during a school week and getting to see some of my worries fading in real time. Creating this discarded pile helped me to control my chaos and come out of the week feeling better. I was unsure of whether I should take the step of throwing away these papers myself, but for the time being I am going to keep these papers in the corner of the tunnel. I have no use for them, but perhaps the space can be one where I feel safe to discard even more stress in the future and the pile will grow.